World News - Former Va. Mayor Pleads Guilty to 243 Felonies, Including Rigging Election and Corruption

The former mayor of a tiny coal town who prosecutors say masterminded a scheme to buy votes with beer, cigarettes and even pork rinds, pleaded guilty Thursday to 243 felonies, including vote-rigging and corruption. Wise County Circuit Judge Tammy McElyea made former Appalachia mayor Ben Cooper plead individually to each of the charges against him, which included stealing election records, forging ballots, hindering the rights of citizens to vote freely, voting more than once in an election and violating absentee voting procedures. By the time she reached the 11th charge, Cooper, 64, was saying "guilty" before she had finished reading the charge. "You're getting ahead of me," she said, to which Cooper apologized. During the trial of one of 13 people accused of conspiring with Cooper, prosecutors portrayed the ex-mayor as being the key figure in a plot to rig a 2004 election in ... http://abcnews.go.com

Taming bazooka-wielding drug traffickers whose turf war has littered a once tranquil state with corpses and severed heads will be one of Felipe Calderon's toughest tasks as Mexico's new president. A fight raging between local gangs allied to Mexico's main drug cartels has killed more than 500 people in Michoacan this year, according to local media tallies that make the western state the country's most violent. "They kidnap them, they hang them from the trees and they leave them in pieces in bags," a housewife in her 60s said, recounting recent score settlings in the sun-baked main square of Apatzingan, a lowland town at the center of the battle. The gangs have become so bold that one of them, known as "The Family," took out advertisements in Michoacan local papers last week claiming it was the upholder of law and order against other, less scrupulous traffickers. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2691187

The US government has unveiled a new citizenship test for immigrants which will focus on the concepts of democracy rather than on historical facts. However, immigrant rights groups have rejected the new test, describing it as an anti-immigrant measure. Officials said the aim was to encourage immigrants to learn about the country's civic values to become better citizens. The new questions will be tried out on immigrant volunteer groups before being included in the new test. Why don’t they want them to learn the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? At least they would learn that those are now totally trashed, also we were to be a Republic not a Democracy. If fact, Democracy is not mentioned in the Constitution, but it is mentioned in the Federalist papers, as the worst form of government, and that’s what they fooled you into thinking we have. It’s not an simple oversight that it’s not taught in school anymore. People might start thinking if they ever took the time to read it...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6197422.stm

Chinese courts on Friday rejected the appeal of a New York Times researcher and upheld the four-year prison term of a blind activist, according to parties connected with the cases. The Beijing High Court delivered its judgment on Times researcher Zhao Yan's appeal in a five-minute session, lawyer Guan Anping said in a telephone interview. Zhao was convicted of fraud in August but acquitted of a more serious charge of revealing state secrets. He was sentenced to three years but could have received a 10-year term. His case has drawn international attention amid efforts by China's communist government to tighten controls on the media. Dozens of reporters have been jailed, often on charges of violating China's vague secrecy and security laws. The New York Times said it had no immediate comment on the ruling but would issue a statement later....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2692294

At least 146 people have been killed in the Philippines by a mudslide triggered by a typhoon, the Red Cross says. Rains caused by Typhoon Durian brought mud and rocks down hillsides, burying two villages in the foothills of the Mayon volcano, south-east of Manila. Five other villages were also affected, and as the search for the survivors continues, the death toll may rise. In September, nearly 200 people were killed when Typhoon Xangsane hit the north and centre of the country. The mudslides hit Albay province, with main casualties occuring in the villages of Daraga, Busay and Santo Domingo. The area affected is near the city of Legaspi, 350km (220 miles) from the capital, Manila. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6197478.stm

A day after swaggering into court and admitting killing one state trooper and wounding two others, a former fugitive pleaded guilty Thursday to a jail escape that led to the largest manhunt in state history.“Guilty as hell,” Ralph “Bucky” Phillips said when asked by a judge how he wished to plead.In a repeat of court appearances Wednesday, Phillips was upbeat, smiling and waving to supporters on his way in and out of the courtroom. The 44-year-old career criminal broke out of a Buffalo-area jail in April by using an industrial can opener to cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling and eluded authorities for months. Phillips finally surrendered Sept. 8, emerging from a field near the New York-Pennsylvania line with his hands up as police closed in....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15950733/